Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1887-07-28
GIRLS WE HAVE ALI ME7
The Pretty Girl, the Gushing Girl, aud
the Girls We Really Lore.

beau was beseigcd by fair maid and a
homely maid, who pressed the claim of
intellect versus beauty. The homely girl
exclaimed: 80, you will surely give your
vote, Mr.. D., in favor of intellect I;
beauty is only skin deep, you know"
deep enough for me, my dear; deep
enough for me-" answered the irrepressi-
bic gallant. And so it is for the most of
us. A pretty girl may drop her final SIS,
not own an + in all her vocabulary, be rs
vapid as shallow little stream purling
down the hillside, with an eternal smile
on her red lips, CLINT of laughter in her
young eye. She is pretty, and she knows
it, and that is almost enough. But after
Il time there will come n day when the
girl who was only pretty will stand by
and look at the triumphs of the girl who
was wise as well as pretty; who fitted
her mind TO accord with the graces of its
beautiful casket. Her few friends may
be faithful TO her. Her one true lover
may still be fond of her, for it is not easy
TO uproot love, but their fondness is tenn
pered with regret and disappointment,
and when the soft eyes dim, and the round
arms shrivel, and the satin check is an
etched picture of life's vanity and times
failure, the poor girl who is only pretty
turns her poor SCARED face to the wall {;
there is no welcome lamp of intelligence
lighted in the blue windows of her soul
dull, inert, uncultivated. Skin-deep beau
ty was not enough after all.
The gushing girl is Il nineteenth cen
tury production. She giggles from the
time she opens her eyes in the morning
until she says amen to the Lord at night
and puts her fluffy little head on the pill
low. She says thanks awfully" for 81
thank you" She thinks the grand, lu-
gubrious music of the "Stabat Mater
"too sweet for anything" A kitten with
its eyes us yet unopened, the Niagara
Falls and Mr.. Gladstone all are 'just
too utterly charming and lovely for any
earthly use" Her adjectives are all in
the superlative. She will gush over a
pumpkin, over her sisters new baby, over
a doggcrcl rhyme, over everything she
sees, everything she hears, over everybody
she knows. Ii she is here tonight she
will say to me as she does Of the weather
as she did of her new bonnet-that /
am either "simply grand" or simply
horrid" But then she is young-she Is
impressionable. She is full of something
which she thinks is sentiment Let her
hug her neighbors' babies and her BROTH
er's kittens and kiss the lie puppy, and
adore the new minister. II is the inno-
cent, light-hearted gush of girl. Let
her frolicsomc youth have its fling. In
little while she, too, will join the ranks
Of the lookers-oD, and will have her fling
, at that silly, giggling gusher, to whom
everything is "sweet" or "cute," i" or "cun-
ming" or "just too awfully lovely"
There is a girl, and love to think OF
her, and talk of her, who comes in late
when there is company, who wears a pret
ty little air of mingled responsibility and
anxiety with her youth, whom the Others
seem to depend on and look to for many
comforts. She is the girl who helps
3 mother. III her own home she is bless
ed little saint and comforter. She
takes unfinished tasks from the tired, stiff
fingers that falter at their work her
strong young fingers is staff upon which
the gray-haired, whte-faccd mother lean
and rests. She helps her mother witt
the spring sewing, with the weeks mend
r ing, with cheerful conversation and con
genial companionship that some do no
d think worth while wasting on their moth
or. And, when there comes a day tha
she must bend, as girls must often bend
over the old, WORKOUT body Of mother
D., lying unheedful in her coffin, rough hand
folded, her long disquiet merged into rest
: something very sweet will be mingled
with her loss, and the girl who helpeC
her mcther will find a bencdiction ol
peace upon her head and in her heart
r The girl who works-God. bless her
is another girl whom / know. She j
brave and active. She il not too prou'
:, to earn her own living nor ashamed to b.
/ caught at her daily task. She is studi
Il Gus and painstaking and patient Sh
a smiles at you from behind counter 0
j. desk There is . memory Of her sewn III
to each silken gown. She is like beau
/ tiful young mountaineer already far vi
the hill, and the sight Of her should b
an inspiration for u ALL 1t is an homo
to know this girl-to be worthy of he
regard. Her hand may be stained wit
cactorv e,reasc or rriufor's ink hut n